MNN Galleries

Iceland volcano: Beautiful images of a natural disaster

Ominous, fluffy clouds

The plume of ash from the volcano forced the closure of airspace across Europe, affecting thousands of flights in a wide arc from Ireland to Scandinavia. The shutdown is one of the most sweeping ever ordered in peacetime. The eruption under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajökull area of Iceland is the second in the country in less than a month.

Ominous, fluffy clouds

The plume of ash from the volcano forced the closure of airspace across Europe, affecting thousands of flights in a wide arc from Ireland to Scandinavia. The shutdown is one of the most sweeping ever ordered in peacetime. The eruption under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajökull area of Iceland is the second in the country in less than a month.